I’m really excited! The New Hero anthology Table of Contents has been announced and I’m in it!. You may recall me posting about my short story and Stone Skin Press a while back where I talked about “Fangs and Formaldehyde,” about an iconic vampire. One of the inspirations for this particular story was Twilight. No seriously, it really was. To me, many modern-day vampires have had their fangs removed. Even though they prey on humans to survive and have traditionally been monstrous creatures, they’ve been de-fanged for romantic plot purposes. Mind you, I have absolutely no problem with romance authors or readers. Romance is a popular genre and it does have its place in our wide, wide world of fiction. These authors work just as hard as anyone else does to tell a good story.

When I was working on my story, I wanted my modern vampires needed to have a legitimate reason why they weren’t monstrous creatures that wasn’t just: “Because otherwise people will hunt us.” This was a lot of fun to worldbuild because it was a challenge. Was I able to do something unique? Well, you can be the judge of that.

Standing alongside me are several other fine authors including Rich Dansky, Kyla Ward. Ed Greenwood and my friend Maurice Broaddus. After you check it out, be sure to read Diagramming the New Hero where the editor, Robin Laws, explains how he put the order together.

Table of Contents for New Heroes

Ezekiel Saw the Wheel, Julia Bond Ellingboe

Better Off Not Knowing, Jeff Tidball

Warrior of the Sunrise, Maurice Broaddus

The Midnight Knight, Ed Greenwood

The Thirty-Ninth Labor of Reb Palache, Richard Dansky

On Her Majesty’s Deep Space Service, Jonny Nexus

Cursebreaker: The Jikininki and the Japanese Jurist, Kyla Ward

Against the Air Pirates, Graeme Davis

Fangs and Formaldehyde, Monica Valentinelli

Bad Beat for Aaron Burr, Kenneth Hite

Charcuterie, Chuck Wendig

Sundown in Sorrow’s Hollow, Monte Cook

A Man of Vice, Peter Freeman

The Captain, Adam Marek

I hope you visit Stone Skin Press or watch my blog for more updates. This’ll be a fun anthology to read.

Monica Valentinelli is a writer, editor, and game developer. Her portfolio includes stories, games, comics, essays, and pop culture books.

In addition to her own worlds, she has worked on a number of different properties including Firefly, Vampire: the Masquerade, Shadowrun, Hunter: the Vigil, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, and Robert E. Howard’s Conan.

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Would you like to hire me? Because my projects and manuscripts are in flux, I am always open to discussing new opportunities with publishers and studios. As a full-time writer, I spend a portion of my time seeking new gigs–so don’t be afraid to reach out. If you’re interested, please e-mail me via my Contact Page. I typically reply to work-related e-mails within one-to-two business days.

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